


Mrs. Jacobs... I Can Explain

by Ididntsignupforthisshit (myhamartia)



Series: The Hair Dye Drabbles [2]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Hair Dyeing, Jack is weak for fancy lollipops and Les takes advantage of him, M/M, Trans David Jacobs, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 12:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12557428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myhamartia/pseuds/Ididntsignupforthisshit
Summary: Newsietober Day 29: LesLes employs Jack to help him dye his hair on the down low, and David realizes that he is dating a child.In which Les’ hair is pink, David’s entire being is suffering, Mrs. Jacobs’ knocks Connor’s mom dead and Jack certainly does not drink coffee.





	Mrs. Jacobs... I Can Explain

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like this! I've been working on it slowly but surely for like three weeks. Ha.
> 
> Also I started a [series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/856564) wherein the guys and gals and nonbinary pals of the newsies have colorful hair. So far, we have Davey, and now Les. Jack may be next. I believe he's going pink as well, but  _we shall see_.

        There was something up with Les. Maybe it wasn’t anything major, there were no glaring signs, really; it was in the way he wore the beanie Sarah gave to him for his last birthday (something he never cared for before) and the way how whenever he would come out of the shower, he would have a towel tightly around his hair, something Davey never really noticed before.

   It took Davey a while to notice it. Which he really couldn’t be blamed for, because he really only came home on the weekends, now. Things like college and living in-dorm will do that to a person.

    David thought he was just being weird until Jack began to point it out.

    Jack would do things like duck in the room as David and his brother were FaceTiming, which was a normal ordeal, except that he would complement Les on his hat, or mention the possibility of hat-hair, with a tone that suggested some kind of secretive inside joke. David could just see Jack tapping the side of his nose, winking suspiciously.

  And, suspicious is what it was!  _ Especially  _ since any inside jokes involving  _ Jack Kelly _ usually more often than not ended up with people getting in trouble. He, of course, spoke from experience.

   David didn't say anything about it, though. He kept it all to himself, which was probably a bad thing, because then  it all came together, giving him all sorts of  _ ideas _ about what Les was hiding. Things like premature hair loss and early receding hairlines plagued David’s thoughts, making him fear for his younger brother.

    Not wanting to approach a rather…  _ delicate _ matter like that over the phone or through text, David decided to let it rest until the weekend, where he could question Les properly.

   The weekend came quicker than David expected it to, really. Early Saturday morning had David (and Jack by extension) throwing a few weekend bags together before travelling upstate to the little suburb where the Jacobs family lived.

    David’s mother was going out for the day with a group of her friends. David remembered something being said about a movie and a bottle of wine, but that was the extent of the details he was given.

   Sarah was  _ usually  _ the one to watch Les in occasions like that, since Les could happily hang out in her apartment for the afternoon. They would make dinner and watch some sort of Netflix show. But, since she was caught up in her girlfriend, that weekend marking their one-year anniversary, David's mother decided that it was much better to call the favor out of David instead.

   And so, coming into his mother's house that Saturday afternoon, Jack trailing behind him, David thought he was prepared for anything.

    Les came down the stairs two at a time, the same maroon beanie snug over his head, calling out names excitedly. Of course, none of them were David’s.

    Predictably, Les crashed into Jack and hugged him tight around the middle.

    “What’re you tryna do, knock me down?” Jack laughed, ruffling the hat on his head, shiting it, but not enough to dislodge it.

    “And if I am?” Les said in a huff. He pulled back grinning. “I could take you down in less than a second!”

    Jack laughed. “I’d like to see you try.” He knocked the side of his fist affectionately against Les’ temple.

    “Oh, come on. What am I, chopped liver?” David asked after he slipped his shoes off near the matt.

    Les crinkled his nose in disgust at the thought. “That’d be a pretty nasty thing to be, Davey,” he said. He hugged his brother in a much less aggressive manner.

    “I guess it would,” David admitted.

    Les rattled on to Jack about some kind of new computer game he had gotten, while David looked around the living room, listening for sounds of their mother. “Where’s Mom?” he asked when Les stopped to catch his breath.

    David’s little brother grinned at him. “Getting ready for her hot date,” Les said, giggling.

    “‘Hot date,’” Jack echoed, his eyebrows slowly rising.

    “Yeah. Say, what do you mean by that? I thought it was just her night out with Connor’s Mom.” David frowned in thought, especially at the way Les’ face screwed up in such a way David knew he said something he shouldn’t have. Or, rather, he said something he wasn’t sure if he was cleared to share or not.

    Les puffed his cheeks out, looking closely at his brother. “I thought you knew about it.”

    David paused, trying to think back. “She just said she was going out, she didn’t say anything about a date.”

    Les patted his arm sympathetically. “It must hurt to be so out of the loop.” His tone was wistful, as was his sigh.

    “Oh, get out of here,” David said, pushing his shoulder.

    “Fine, but I’m taking Jack with me!” Les declared. His hand was already clasped around Jack’s wrist and was trying his best to drag Jack away and up the stairs.

    “Good luck,” David said, laughing. He kissed Jack shortly on the mouth, and it had Les faking a gag and pulling harder on Jack’s wrist. Jack was dragged up the stairs in the matter of seconds. He looked over his shoulders at David, a silly grin slapped across his face.

    David himself went farther into the house, taking a corner and going down a short hall until he came to the master bedroom. He knocked heavily on the doorframe.

    “Come in,” his mother called. “I’m just finishing my hair.”

    He came to stand in the doorway of the en suite.

    His mother caught his eyes in the mirror and smiled brightly at him. She had an aerosol can of hairspray in her hand, and David could see little particles gently falling around her.

    “So a hot date, huh?” he said, smiling suggestively.

    She looked at him, lifting an eyebrow before she puffed her cheeks out in a very comical way, considering how immaculate she currently looked. Les took after her in the ffunniest of ways. “Les call it that?” David nodded, trying to stifle a laugh. She made a small frustrated sound. She puffed her cheeks out again, looking herself in the eyes in the mirror.

    “You’re going to ruin your base,” David said, still biting at the inside of his cheeks to reign in a smile.

    She deflated instantly, swapping exasperation for a smile. “Good point,” she said, resigned. She put her hairspray down onto the counter with a little noise. “It isn’t so much of a hot date as a… a trial run. Seeing how it plays out.”

    He leaned against the wall and crossed his ankles in front of him. “I’m sure it’ll go well,” he assured her, pointing out “she already loves you.”

    “Let’s hope she can still see that when I accidentally smear alfredo sauce all over my face.”

    David looked at her with a level gaze. “You never smear things over your face,” he pointed out helpfully.

    She hummed, looking like she wanted to fidget again. “Well, Les has warned me so many times of it, I’m sure it’s very much a possibility, now.”

    David laughed aloud that time.

    The next ten minutes were spent with idle chatter with his mother, whilst trying to sneakily sooth her nerves, because if it was obvious, she would just get nervous again. Jack popped in just as she was gathering up her handbag. He gave her a big smile, told her that she’ll do fine.

    Well, his real words landed somewhere around “ _ Damn, Mrs. Jacobs. You look fantastic. Connor’s mom ain’t gonna know what hit her! _ ” but that’s neither here nor there.

    Nevertheless, soon Mrs. Jacobs was out the door and the boys were left to themselves. Les was wearing his ridiculous slouch beanie and acting as suspicious as ever, but David let it slide, berating himself for being so suspicious of his brother.

    Surely David was just being… oddly paranoid.

    It was a late dinner; one of pasta and homemade spaghetti sauce. They took turns playing their favorite songs with the bluetooth speaker that sat in the cupboard that housed all of the plates, dancing and fooling around as they went. Almost everything went extremely well, which was certainly a win in David’s book.

    Almost everything.

_ Almost _ .

    There was a slight hiccup when David went upstairs to rid himself of his chest binder. With the realization that he had worn it for a bit more than his eight and some hours, he had excused himself upstairs, telling Jack to watch the pot on the stove. He was trying to break the habit of wearing it longer than he was strictly supposed to - a nasty habit that was trying to form. He changed out of the binder and pulled a sweater (one of Jack’s. It  _ used to be _ a solid white, but it was now stained with a million different paint flecks) over his tee, as the thicker fabric concealed more.

    He came back downstairs to find half the pot of unfinished,  _ still reducing _ sauce splashed over the floor while Les and Jack desperately tried to mop it up with various kitchen rags and paper towels.

    David was horrified. The kitchen was a mess, there was tomato and little green bits and chunks of onion stuck to the knees of the boys’ jeans, and even after they had cleaned it all up, the floor was still slightly slick afterwards.

    It had turned out well, though, so David didn’t worry  _ too _ much about it. He still made Les mop up the floor, so the sweet smell of their cooking was somewhat tainted with the odor of Clorox cleaning spray.

    The sauce continued reducing, giving them about a quarter of the original pot. But it was enough for them all, if a little stretched.

    All in all, everything went very well.

    David was just waiting for the other foot to drop.

    And eventually, it did. It stomped through the delicate, wafer-like balance of the evening. Like a toddler’s greedy hands snapping a cracker in half in their carelessness, David’s sanity all but snapped at the completely asinine actions of his idiotic boyfriend and conniving little brother.

    David shifted from his position on the couch, tucking a throw pillow up under his cheek as his eyes struggled to focus on  _ Sabrina _ playing on the television. In all honesty, he could barely see the television past Jack’s shoulder, as his boyfriend sat on the floor in front of the couch, leaning back against the bottom cushions. Les was wrapped up in a blankets nestled happily in a recliner off to the side.

    It was nearly midnight, and on-screen David was only just getting around to sitting on a pair of champagne flutes. David didn’t think he was going to last the full movie. Jack was fully invested in the film, his eyes all but sparkling as he shoved popcorn in his mouth. Les was less interested, checking his phone frequently.

    David only lasted until Sabrina slapped Linus in the garden (Jack cheered, pumping a fist in the air, obviously getting deeply invested in the movie), and then tapped Jack’s shoulder to grab his attention.

    Jack turned half way around to look at his boyfriend, eyebrows raised in question.

    “I’m going to go to bed,” he said, voice quiet.

    Jack hummed, kissing David. “You want me to turn this off?”

    David shook his head. “No, you can watch the rest of it. Just gonna head upstairs.” He leaned in and kissed him.

    “I love you,” Jack murmured against David’s mouth.

    David smiled sleepily. “I love you, too,” he replied. “Get Les in bed after this movie’s over, okay?” Jack nodded. “He’ll try to con you into staying up later; stay strong, alright?”

    Jack laughed. “Alright, Dave. I got it.”

    “Good.” Another heavy kiss, Jack’s fingers combing softly through his hair. He made a little sleepy sound. “Okay. Bed. You’re missing your movie.” Slowly, David forced his sleep-addled limbs into pulling himself up from the couch and eventually up the stairs. He flopped down onto his bed. He could barely remember falling asleep.

         The next morning began, and David found it all very routine. His phone alarm woke him up a quarter after seven, and Jack sleepily batted at him while he shut the annoying thing off.

    David was left to take in the morning streaming in through the parted curtains, Jack curled around him. Well. More  _ under _ him, if David was being honest. His right leg was burrowed up under David’s side, with David half lying on him. They had shifted in their sleep, so Jack was bent at an awkward angle against the headboard, his arms thrown over David, while David himself was a little farther  _ down _ the bed, with his feet hanging off the end of the mattress, hanging in midair.

   Deciding that he was ready to get up, David carefully extracted himself from Jack and rolled off the bed; his knees hit the floor with a hard thump. He didn’t get far beyond that, as David ended up flattening himself down on the tacky rug Sarah once bought for him and looked at his ceiling as he tried to get his brain up and working.

    " _ Babe _ ," Jack groaned from above him. A hand flopped over the side of the mattress, lazily grabbing for David. "Come back." His hands were splattered and stained pink. David wasn't sure how the color came to be, but he honestly just never questioned it anymore. It came with dating an artist, he supposed. Jack's body was always streaked with color, whether it be a blot of blue oil paint on the bridge of his nose, green behind his ear, or an odd sweep of yellow up his ribs (David still had no idea how he had managed that one), the color was a fixture on Jack's body and that would never change.

    David sat up, groaning at his sleep-stiffened back as he went. He leaned over and placed a little kiss to Jack's knuckles before he hauled himself up on unsteady legs to stand.

    "Dave," Jack tried again. He looked up at David from the quilts and pillows with a pout on his mouth, eyes going for the doe eyed look. "Come 'eeeeree." He reached his arm up, hand flexing.

    "Can't. If I do, I'm never gonna get up." David did get back on his bed, kneeling precariously on the edge while he leaned over to take Jack's face in his hands and kiss him softly. He blanched a bit at their combined morning breath, and was soon pulling away.

    "Thing is-," David paused to listen to his boyfriend. He didn't suspect Jack surging up and hooking his arms up under David's so he could take him back down to the lower part of the mattress. "-that's the fucking point of coming back to bed.  _ Not _ getting back up."

    David groaned, struggling in Jack's grip.

    "Oh, come on. I've - I've gotta go - Hey, quit that. - I have to go make  _ coffee, Jack, oh my God. _ " He pushed at Jack's face to divert the man from his self-given mission to press tickling kisses all across his face.

    "Or you could not. Who's even going to drink coffee? Hm?" Jack challenged, rising up to lean on his elbows, looking down at David.

    "Mom will. I might." He rested his hands on Jack's arms, waiting for the perfect opportunity.

    "Dave, you don't drink coffee unless the deadlines are so serious, you might actually end up _ dead. Hey! _ " Jack yelped in surprise when David took hold of Jack's shoulders and rolled them over so that David was on top. Jack’s grabbing hands were useless against David, as he had already rolled off of him and the bed, and was out the door like a shot.

    The ritual of coffee making and setting up for breakfast was routine. Pancake batter was mixed up before Jack even decided to make an appearance.

    Jack's hair stuck out at odd ends right off the top of his head, and his eyes were still groggy, but it didn't deter him from marching straight up to David and kissing him against the counter. He had brushed his teeth before he came down, a fact David very much appreciated(even if it made him conscious of the fact that his breath was still as stale as could be).

    "I'll get you next time," he said, like a two bit villain. David snorted with laughter as Jack took the bowl of pancake batter from David's hands and a spatula from the drawer next to the stove. He shifted everything to one arm so he could flick the stove range on with his free hand, and adjust the griddle on the burner.

    David stepped back, letting the man be as David himself worked towards getting a pair of glasses from the cabinet and filling them with orange juice.

    This was a certain unspoken agreement they had come upon in the early days of their relationship. They had learned that David was excellent at preparing the ingredients and mixing things up, but was utterly horrible at cooking them. He didn't know how, but everything he attempted to cook turned out either under or overcooked. It never failed.

    It was in just the opposite way that Jack could do anything from bake amazing cupcakes, to fry pancakes into a golden brown perfection - he just couldn't ever mix anything. His recipes were bland at best.

    David insisted that he simply didn't read the recipes right, but Jack argued the same thing to David.

    And so they came to a stalemate.

    And an agreement.

    David mixed, Jack cooked. It worked for them and they ate well.

    Sooner than later, David’s mother made her appearance in her silk robe and curly hair fastened in a low pony tail.

    She practically sneaked up on them as they squabble over the possibility of characterized pancakes(“You cannot do that, Jack.” “Just fucking watch me, Dave. Y’all got a squeeze-y condiment bottle?”). They took turns grilling her over her date (“It went well, okay? We might be going out again.) just before Les joined them too a beanie snuggly down to his eyebrows.

    David looked warily at his brother as they all sat down for breakfast.

    “Les, what’s up with all the hats?” he asked finally. He sat down next to his brother with a little sighed and took a sip of his orange juice.

    Les simply shrugged. “I dunno. Marcus made me one month before last in class, and I just decided that I really liked them. Started wearing Sarah’s again.” The answer was easy, practiced.

    ...but David didn’t quite miss the conspiratorial look Jack shot to Les.

    “Huh.”

    He wasn’t quite convinced.

    Les stabbed his fork into his short stack, ducking his head. And that was when he saw it. The pink stain was behind his ear, spreading, and following down his hairline until it went under the collar of his shirt. David caught Jack’s eyes and suddenly… everything pieced together.

    Jack seemed to realize that David figured them out and blanched, paling under the realization that they’d been caught.

    David couldn’t believe it. “No,” he mouthed, disbelief spread thick over his face, “you didn’t.”

    Jack ducked his head and suddenly made himself very busy with a cup of coffee - a tell, if David’s ever seen one. Jack did  _ not _ drink coffee.

    David pulled himself out of his chair and crossed the floor to stand very close to his boyfriend.

    “Did you dye Les’ hair?” he hisses from between his teeth, quietly so that his mother wouldn’t hear. Jack didn’t answer. “Jack?”

    “I plead the fifth,” he croaked. He jerked his spoon through his cup, stirring in  _ way _ too much milk for his coffee.

    “Jack.” David reached out and grabbed Jack’s free hand, brushing his thumb lightly across the pink splattered skin. “Babe.”

    Jack made a low groaning sound, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. “ _ David. _ ”

    “ _ Jackie. _ ”

    Jack whined, looking torn. “Babe.”

    David wilted. “You  _ did _ , didn’t you.”

    Jack vibrated for about three seconds before he jumped back away from his coffee, and David’s fingers, to vault across the room.

    “Scram kid! We’ve been discovered!”

    Les was a half a heartbeat behind him, and they were out the door in four seconds flat.

    “What in the world?” David’s mother gasped.

    David melted once again. “Mom, before you see, I apologize for my awful, awful boyfriend.” And with that, David gave chase after the. He made it halfway up the stairs when he heard the clatter in his bedroom. He opened the door to see the window thrown open and Jack’s shoes gone from beside the closet door.

    David looked out the window and saw Jack hanging off the lip of the garage roof, just before the man dropped down.

    Les!” David shouted to the boy still on the roof.

    Les turned back to him, eyes fearfully wide. “Tell Mom I love her!” he yelled. He hopped down into Jack’s waiting arms.

    David watched, utterly defeated as the two of them got into David’s Jeep and drove away.

    Downstairs, he sat back down at the table, suddenly feeling extremely tired.

    His mother slid him a cup of tea and he took it gratefully.

    “Want to tell me what happened?” she offered.

    David sighed. “I am dating a twelve year old, and we are never having kids,” he announced. He let his head thump the table top, trying not to let how his mother laughed hit him too hard.  _ She didn’t understand _ .

    His phone made a little noise and David dragged it out of his pocket. The message was a Snap from Les; a selfie of both boys in a cafe not too many streets away. They were grinning madly and Les’s nose was all scrunched up.

    The beanie was nowhere in sight, and Les’ neon pink hair was proudly on display.

    David wordlessly passed the phone to his mother.

    She giggled madly, and that was the end of that.

    If there was one thing David learned that day, it was to never again bring Jack along when he was supposed to watch Les again.

    When Les and Jack made it back to the house an hour and some later, Jack looked properly sheepish. Les didn’t even have the grace to look small. He was all bright grins and loud, proud attitudes.

    Their mother was tickled with the color, picking at the strands of his hair and asking when the pink blotches on his skin were going to fade.

    “We’ve yet to figure that out,” Jack answered sheepishly.

    “When did you have time to bleach his hair?” David asked. “You can’t exactly do all that in one night.” He’d seen Spot dye her hair. That took quite a while for all the natural color to lift from her hair.

    “I bleached it a week ago,” Les confessed.

    Their mother frowned. “Why didn’t I notice?” she asked. “You’d think I’d catch that.”

    David’s eyes filled with understanding. “He wore the beanie to get everyone used to the fact we haven’t seen his hair in two months,” he said, a little awed. “This took a lot of planning. How long were you two planning this, huh?” He prodded Jack’s ribs with an elbow.

    Jack threw up his hands. “The little sucker came to me two weeks ago with a proposition I couldn’t refuse! What was I supposed to do?”

    “What did you offer him?” David asked Les, narrowing his eyes at him.

    Les lifted his chin proudly. “I saved up a slice of my allowance and bought him those fancy lollipops he likes.”

    David looked at Jack, and he could do little more than throw his hands up again. “It’s the good stuff! How’s I supposed to refuse?”

    “Oh my God. I am dating a child. An honest-to-God child.”

**Author's Note:**

> drop me a comment!
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](https://itsnewstome.tumblr.com)


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